292 ROBERTSON. 



Our anxiety for the result, and our interest in the great 

 admiral, is now wound up to the highest pitch, when 

 he obtains a promise of his crew persevering, " watch- 

 ing with him " yet three days. The indications of land 

 being not far off now become less doubtful ; and from 

 among them are selected the more striking, closing 

 with this picturesque passage : " The sailors aboard 

 the Nina took up the branch of a tree with red berries, 

 perfectly fresh. The clouds around the setting sun 

 assumed a new appearance ; the air was more mild and 

 warm, and during the night the wind became unequal 

 and variable." When we are thus in painful suspense, 

 comes the crowning victory at once of the great navi- 

 gator who has happily traced the unknown ocean, and 

 of the great historian who has strictly pursued his path, 

 but so as to give the well-known truth all the interest 

 and all the novelty of a romantic tale now first told. 



I beg any one who thinks these remarks overrate 

 his merit, to mark the exquisite texture of the 

 following sentences, in which the grand result, the 

 development of the whole, is given ; and to mark the 

 careful simplicity of the diction, the self-concealed art 

 of the master, and his admirable selection of particu- 

 lars, by which we, as it were, descend and perch upon 

 the deck of the great admiral : " From all these symp- 

 toms Columbus was so confident of being near land, 

 that on the evening of the llth of October, after public 

 prayers for success, he ordered the sails to be furled, 

 and the ships to lie-to, keeping strict watch, lest they 

 should be driven on shore in the night. During this 

 interval of suspense and expectation no man shut his 

 eyes; all kept upon deck, gazing intently towards that 



